


Congratulations

by undisguised



Category: The Royal Romance (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-23 06:01:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18148022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undisguised/pseuds/undisguised
Summary: Liam proposes to Riley and this is the opportunity to make everybody happy. Kind of.





	Congratulations

**Author's Note:**

> Slightly AU, maybe, because I haven't played the game in a while. But my love for Maxwell is still alive.
> 
> Also... I never proofread, otherwise I wouldn't upload anything. Sorry!

She thinks she’d seen this scenario in a movie before. Quite frankly, this is the moment most girls dream of. And it is a dream, because if she’s being honest, this kind of stuff do not happen in real life. 

She looks at the rock, then back at Liam. 

There’s a reason as to why movies and dreams aren’t a synonym of reality.

“Riley, will you marry me?”

Liam is beaming, and Riley clutches her chest. 

They’ve known each other for almost a year now and she knows that the smile isn’t because they’re spending a lifetime together, raising three beautiful children who will be tutored at home by the best teachers the world can offer. 

It’s a smile of relief. Because if she says yes, all their problems will be solved. Sure, he could marry Madeleine but he’d regret it the rest of his life, trying to share the throne with a woman so rigid she cuts with just one glance. The people’s approval will grow through the roof; but Liam just wants to keep by his side at least one thing that will get him tethered to the ground. 

And that person is Riley. Even if he wants to choose a million things before her, she’s the only exception the crown makes for him.

They always say you should marry your best friend...

It applies to him. 

But to her... she thinks of Maxwell. She always does. 

She’s the first thing she sees in the morning, he is the last person she thinks of at night. The amount of affection she has for him is not healthy. Riley has never been one to grow attached to men, or people in general, which is why it didn’t take much for her to catch a private plane to a foreign country. 

But Maxwell cracked the code. Even at the moment she was ready to leave court life behind, he appeared and she realized she couldn’t leave him. There is a need in her to protect him the same way he has always believed in her. 

She found herself wanting him more this time around; the attraction was always there but now they became synchronized. With just one glance he could make her laugh, and with a single touch on her shoulder she’d forget about everything else, about the crown, about her responsibilities. As if she didn’t spend most of her time with Maxwell already, she still couldn’t get enough of him.

They were it for each other, she knows it. 

However, Riley thinks of the UN party and how Maxwell had drifted away by that time, he still appeared, he still made her laugh, but the glow behind his eyes was lost. She confronted him on the rooftop, he denied her suspicions and told her she was seeing things. He must have known about the proposal. Because when Liam’s name came up on the conversation, he opened his mouth to say something but he quickly retracted himself.

This is her duty.

If she says yes, their problems will definitely go away. Liam might become a little less insane (he doesn’t say it, but she sees it). Maxwell won’t have to keep selling artwork handpicked by her dead mother just to feed baby  Bartie . Riley won’t have to go back to New York, in her old cramped apartment, trying to make a living with a degree that’s basically worthless nowadays.

But what about Drake? 

He can pretend all he wants that he doesn’t care, he insisted Liam married somebody else for both of their sake’s and he’s the one that kept shoving Riley onto Liam. 

He hated her, and he pretends that he still does, but Riley is the sister that he needed after all this time, much more now that he found out Savannah is a mother. 

She thinks about herself in a wedding dress that will be discussed for years to come. Liam smiling dutifully, his mind having an internal conflict. Drake blacked out drunk in a closet in the palace because he’d rather forget the evening. Maxwell finally getting the approval of his brother and realizing that it doesn’t come near to what he has with her. 

Is this really what the future had in mind for them? 

When she thinks about her ideal life, she thinks of throwing lavish parties with Maxwell and Chance; she never thinks of marriage, she doesn’t even want kids. She thinks of Liam and Drake’s children complaining about Drake’s taste in food. She thinks of Liam flipping the bird to Leo and hugging him afterwards. 

Her mind raced. Her reply, came mere seconds after Liam got down on one knee, but it felt like a lifetime.

She clutched her chest and Liam kept beaming trying to convince both of them that this was the right choice. 

She sighed and dropped her gaze. “Maxwell....” She let out as a whisper.

He heard it loud and clear.

The sound of the box closing made her look up again. Liam stayed put, lowering his hands, and sighing in relief. “Drake...” This is as much emotion he is willing to show.

They both nodded. The situation was comical but neither of them laughed; yet it wasn’t uncomfortable, it was rather a feeling of realization about the stupid mistake they were about to make. 

Liam will always put  Cordonia  before him, but Riley didn’t acquiesce to that.

The people will be mad, surely. The fantasy of the perfect love story is dead now, instead it transformed itself into a deeply disturbing comedy. 

But until the people get over it, they will always have New York and a bachelor party; they can make movies about that instead.

When Riley flies back to  Cordonia , the first thing she does is find Maxwell.

Unsurprisingly, he is back home at the Beaumont state, a champagne bottle spilled on the floor, the covers of his king-sized bed ruffled. On the bed post, a red lace thong is barely hanging and Maxwell sported a massive chop of morning wood. 

Riley dropped her bag on top of his pile of designer clothes and he barely opened his eyes when he saw it was her. “Congratulations,” he slurred in between drunken words. It was only 9 AM, so he was probably trying to delay his hangover as much as possible. 

He outstretched an arm and patted the bed.

Riley, with her coat still on, positioned herself next to him and laid her head on his chest, his heart beating fast. 

“I’m not getting married,” Riley muttered, her hand caressing his bare chest. 

But by the time she said that Maxwell was already drooling on the pillow, his snores increasing louder by the second.

She expected this, if she was being honest. They’re not the classic love story, where she’d come at midnight rain soaking her underwear with a teary confession and a passionate kiss, instead she’ll have to bring some aspirin at lunch time and explain to him all over again that he’s the one she wants to spend her life with. 

And it’s much, much, much better than what she asked for.


End file.
